LI 



OF CONC 



Sketf.'.. H ^ 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



REASONS FOR BELIEVING 



THE 



Advent of Our Lord Jesus Christ 



TO BE 



PRE-MJLLENNIAL 

A Discourse Delivered in St. Luke's Church, St. Albans, 

Vermont, the Fourth Sunday after Trinity, 

July 14, 1878 

AND PUBLISHED BY SOME MEMBERS OF THE SAME 



NEW YORK 

E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 
18 78 



REASONS FOE BELIEVING 



THE 



Advent of Our Lord Jesus 



Christ 



TO BE 



PRE-MILLENNIAL 

A Discourse Delivered in St. Luke's Church, St. Albans, 

Vermont, the Fourth Sunday after Trinity, 

July 14, 1878 

AND PUBLISHED BY SOME MEMBERS OF THE SAME 



Vjt^ 



o>0 







NEW YORK 
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 

18 78 






COPYKIGHT, 

1878, 
By E. P. DUTTON & CO. 




liew York: J. J. Little & Co., Printers 
10 to 20 Astor Place. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Messrs. M. W. Bailey, J. F. McGowan, G. W. Bentley, John 
C. Faeear, and others; Mesdms. H. J. Watson, I. S. 
Bostwick, H. C. Adams, L. Bratnerd, and others. 

Brethren: — Your kindly expressed note, requesting the 
printing of the explanatory discourse on the Pre-Millennial 
Advent, that you may have "the arguments advanced and 
authorities quoted before you in substance," is received. 

Herewith is the manuscript. I may express the hope that 
the spirit of inquiry aroused will not rest until it has accept- 
ed or rejected, intelligently, this primitive understanding of 
that article of the faith, freighted with such tremendously 
important consequences to the world, "from thence He shall 
come to judge the living and the dead." 

Since the delivery of this discourse, through the courtesy 
of the Rev. John Henry Hopkins, D.D., I have been per- 
mitted to examine and to make extracts from the manuscript 
of the late Bishop Hopkins's work, entitled " The Reign of 
Christ in connection with the future supremacy of Israel, as 
predicted in the Old and New Testaments." In this, as I in- 
ferred, the Bishop accepts the Pre-Millennial Advent, and 
gives copious extracts from the Scriptures of both Testa- 
ments in proof of the doctrine. 

To give an idea how he arrived at his conclusions, I quote 
from the Introduction* 

" The Church of God, to a certain extent, has set her seal 
upon the interpretation of prophecy, according to the literal 
sense, in the Creeds ; and has thus made it essential to be- 
lieve in the inspiration of the prophets by the Holy Ghost ; 
in the Second Advent of Christ, to judge both the quick and 
the dead ; in the resurrection of the body ; in the eternal dura- 
tion of the Saviour's kingdom ; and in the life everlasting. 

3 



4 INTRODUCTION. 

" But a large share of prophetic truth has been left free to 
private judgment. The statements of Scripture concerning 
the personal reign of Christ on earth, the restoration of the 
Jews, the Millennium, the end of the world, the New Jeru- 
salem, with many other matters of high interest, have thus 
been the subject of various interpretations ; and the strange 
contrariety amongst theologians on these points has led 
the majority of the clergy to think that it is useless to seek 
for any satisfactory meaning before the events come to 
pass. 

"Such was my individual opinion during many years of 
my ministerial life. In common with the great body of my 
brethren, I read the prophecies without any hope of under- 
standing them, until the facts predicted should arrive to 
determine their true signification. So far as our modern 
commentators undertook to explain them with a tolerable 
degree of unanimity I accepted the result, without any special 
examination of my own. And although I have gone over the 
pages of the blessed Word of God from the beginning to the 
end more than fifty times in my private studies, yet it is only 
of late that I have devoted particular attention to the pro- 
phetic portions ; believing that any attempt to expound them 
beyond the statements of the Creed was likely to be labor 
thrown away. ... I am not able to perceive that we 
are justified in refusing to accept what is clear and plain, 
according to the literal sense, because there are other por- 
tions which are obscure or even unintelligible. I cannot 
doubt that the prophecies were intended to be read, or they 
would not have been written. I am equally convinced that 
we are bound to understand these communications of the 
Holy Spirit to the full extent of our intellectual ability. 

"And, therefore, it appears to me an inevitable conclusion 
that we owe it as a duty to the truth and majesty of God, to 
embrace this portion of his Word, when we have no rational 
ground to doubt his meaning ; regarding with reverence 
what we may be unable to explain, and thankful for all the 
knowledge of the future which he has condescended to re- 
veal, in language suited to our capacity. 

"That this is the really reasonable course seems quite 
incontrovertible, when we remember that it is the course 



INTRODUCTION. 5 

adopted in all the other subjects of human investigation, for 
mystery is by no means confined to the Bible. . . . 

" In compliance, therefore, with the request of many bre- 
thren, I have undertaken the task of collecting the prophetic 
declarations of the Holy Scriptures on the topics which I 
have enumerated ; avoiding in general what is doubtful and 
obscure, and confining myself to those statements which ad- 
mit a clear literal interpretation. 

" That this is the cardinal rule with all orthodox expositors 
of the Word of God is denied by no writer of respectability, 
although there are not a few who would differ from me in the 
application of the principle, regarding as figurative what I 
receive and endeavor to justify in accordance with the letter. 
For I take it to be a dictate of common sense that the Holy 
Spirit, in employing the language of men, intends it to be 
understood in just agreement with the established laws of 
speech ; or in other words, that what the Lord has actually 
said must be accepted as his meaning in all those statements 
where the obvious use of metaphor, symbols, or allegory 
does not oblige us either to seek for a different signification, 
or to regard the subject as a mystery which we are not able 
to explain. Whenever, therefore, the literal sense is neither 
absurd nor contradictory, I consider it inadmissible to sub- 
stitute an allegorical sense of our own devising. This was 
the great error of the celebrated Origen, in the third cen- 
tury ; and it has proved to be in all subsequent ages a fruit- 
ful source of heresy, and schism, and mystical delusion." 

I have given these quotations at length because the ripe, 
clear judgment of so eminent and learned a man as Bishop 
Hopkins must attract attention ; and I trust that his work, 
not a very voluminous one, may be published. 

Since the delivery of this explanatory discourse, I have 
also received and examined " Waldegrave's Bampton Lec- 
tures." [New Testament Millenarianism. Eight Sermons 
preached before the University of Oxford, in the year 1854, 
by the Hon. and Bev. Samuel Waldegrave, M.A. London : 
Hamilton, Adams & Co., 1855, pp. 686.] This is an exhaus- 
tive treatise opposing the doctrine, but I find nothing therein 
to change the position maintained in this discourse. The 
author enters the contest under the assumption that the 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

doctrine is erroneous, and that the Church is the kingdom 
of Christ. His line of argument is similar to that adopted 
by infidels, attacking singly the evidences of its truth, leav- 
ing untouched the unity of the whole scheme of Redemption, 
and the overwhelming evidence of the common consent of 
the first three centuries, when it is morally impossible that 
the whole Church should have been deceived by false doc- 
trine on so critical a point whilst they had the gift of pro- 
phetic utterance, to be pronounced false in a subsequent age, 
after that gift was withdrawn. 

The author confesses, in the opening sentences of his work, 
the importance of the doctrine. He says, "The second 
Advent is a leading subject in Holy Scripture. It should 
be prominent in the preaching of all Christ's ministers ; 
else are they disobedient to him and unfaithful to his Church 
committed to their charge. . . . What subject can there 
be more edifying, more invigorating, more consoling, than 
* that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great 
God and Saviour, Jesus Christ ? ' " 

But if the Church militant is the kingdom of Christ, why 
need we hope for, or expect " his glorious appearing," and 
presence ? " Hope that is seen is not hope ; for what a man 
seeth, why doth he yet hope for ? " 

At the suggestion of some clerical brethren and other 
friends, I have prepared for the press the sermons which 
called forth this explanation. Their only merit is the origin- 
ality of the line of thought, the entire independence of other 
testimony, and the sincere endeavor to preserve the sweet- 
ness of the hope in the coming of the Lord from that ter- 
rible heresy which destroys individuality of character, and 
personal recompense of reward at his presence and his com- 
ing, and substitutes therefor a beastly development theory 
in which the poor, the afflicted, the sinner, the meek and 
the faithful believer in the words of the Lord Jesus, are to be 
sloughed off and crushed beneath the haughty, tread of this 
seething mass of humanity, marching on, a mighty, but mer- 
ciless giant, to rule the world. "Whatever men may say, or 
human power achieve, this we know, " Jesus Christ is the 

SAME YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY AND FOREVER," and the gracious 

words and promises spoken to the multitudes on the Gali- 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

lean hills, or in Judea's Temple, and since echoed through- 
out the world, must yet be fulfilled on the earth, according 
to His utterance and His intention : " Think not that I am 
come to destroy the law, or the prophets : I am not come to 
destroy, but to fulfil ; for verily I say unto you, till heaven 
and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from 
the law till all be fulfilled." 

T. W. Haskins. 

St. Luke's Rectory, St. Albans, Vt. 
August, 1878. 



EXPLANATORY DISCOURSE. 



II. Peter, i. 16-21. — " We have not followed cunningly devised fables, 
when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, but were eye-witnesses of his majesty. For he received from God 
the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the 
excellent glory, ' This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' And 
this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in 
the holy mount. We have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto 
ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, 
until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts : knowing this first, 
that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation ; for the 
prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God 
spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 

I. Thess. v. 19-21. — "Quench not the spirit; despise not prophesying: 
prove all things : hold fast that which is good." 

Oue second text is merely an illustration adapted to our 
subject this morning. The Holy Spirit should not be hin- 
dered, thwarted, or utterly quenched. The prophecies of 
the Scriptures are not to be despised. What the prophets 
have spoken is to be proved ; and when proved to be good, 
held fast. These words of the Apostle had a meaning and 
force then which they do not have now, and in this way. 
Then members of the congregation prophesied, i. e., spoke by 
the Holy Spirit in divine service ; not knowing themselves 
what they said, others would interpret the language ; others 
again — prophets — would prove whether the prophecy thus 
interpreted were the utterance of good or bad spirits, for 
"the spirits of the prophets were subject to the prophets;" 
when it was proved to be good it was to be "held fast" as 
the utterance of God. But now, as I endeavored to show 
last Sunday night, this gift of prophetic utterance having 
ceased, we are to take what has been recorded in the Scrip- 
tures and govern ourselves by that as the "Wprd of God." 

Our first text also speaks of prophecy, and needs fuller ex- 
planation, as I shall refer to it before I conclude this morning. 

St. Peter, the writer, was one of the three who witnessed 



10 PRE-MILLENNIAL ADVENT. 

the Transfiguration of our Lord. The Transfiguration has 
generally been held as a revelation of what the "Kingdom of 
Heaven" is to be. St. Peter is referring to it in this epistle, 
and exhorts those to whom he is writing to grow in the 
graces of the Holy Spirit, in order that they may have en- 
trance "into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ." He urges this because his departure, by mar- 
tyrdom, is at hand ; and gives them two proofs that there is 
yet to be a glorious kingdom of Christ ; and that his future 
coming {napovaia, presence) is not a cunningly devised 
fable. The first proof is that he was an eye-witness of it in 
the transfiguration where Moses and Elijah were seen talking 
with Christ. The second is the "word of prophecy," which 
he deems the stronger of the two. 

In respect to the "prophecy" he gives them a caution, to 
which I ask your special attention. " Knowing this first, 
that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpre- 
tation ; for the prophecy came not in old time by the icill of 
ma^i ; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the 
Holy Ghost." 

He then proceeds to tell them that in time to come, as in 
time past, false teachers shall come in, who will bring in de- 
structive heresies, and many shall follow their pernicious 
ways, by reason of whom the truth shall be evil spoken of; 
and drawing a comparison between the false teachers and un- 
righteous people of the days of Noah and the inhabitants of 
Sodom and Gomorrha, he carries on his description of the 
growth and development of the false interpretations, until 
men in the last days shall say, scoffingly, "Where is the 
promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, 
all things continue as they were from the beginning of the 
creation." But he assures them that the Lord is not slack 
concerning his promise, and that though with him "one 
day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day," 
yet he shall certainly come to fulfil his promises. Then re- 
minding them of the mingled emotions of fear and joy, stirred 
up by the events and the exceeding godliness and uprightness 
of character and living which it demands, he exhorts them 
to continue steadfast unto the end, being warned by the cer- 
tain punishment awaiting the ungodly world. 



PBE-MTLLENNIAL ADVENT. 11 

Tlie entire epistle is taken up with this subject. 

To our present purpose the most important clause is, "No 
prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation." 
"What does he mean by private interpretation? 

The words employed — idias en iAvo'sgis, private or personal 
unloosing — and the common consent of the primitive Church 
in respect to interpretation, leave no room for doubt. 

1st. It was not to be interpreted by the speaker himself, 
for he spoke not of himself, not at his own suggestion, not 
his own ideas, but as he was moved by the Holy Ghost. 
He was for the time being the passive organ of God. God 
was speaking by his mouth. 

2d. For the same reason it was not to be interpreted by 
another individual according to his own views or sugges- 
tions ; for there were false prophets among them, deceived 
themselves, and deceiving others by their erroneous inter- 
pretation of Scripture. 

But the prophecy must be interpreted, if it were anyway 
obscure, by the Spirit of God himself, speaking in other 
places or through other parties, the same things, thus giving 
concurrent testimony ; or, it must be proved true by its ac- 
tual fulfilment in due time. That is, no one knoweth the 
mind of God but the Spirit of God. God is both his own 
speaker and interpreter. 

Accordingly, we find it to be a fact, that the Church in 
the Apostles' days, and for some time subsequently, was 
governed by the direct utterances of the Holy Spirit. Every 
Epistle which pretended to come from an Apostle or Evan- 
gelist was carefully scrutinized to see whether it agreed with 
other portions of Scripture, and bore the marks in other 
ways of being the utterance of God. 

The burden of the evidence of Christianity from Scripture, 
is to show that the whole Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, 
is the utterance of one mind, without contradiction or vari- 
ance, giving testimony to Jesus, as the Son of God, the King 
of Israel. 

Further : it is evident from this, that a prophecy having 
been once uttered, interpreted by the Holy Spirit, and re- 
ceived throughout the Church as such, cannot, at any sub- 
sequent period, be subject to any private interpretation, 



12 PEE-MILLENNIAL ADVENT. 

either of one man, or a body of men, so that it be made to 
mean something different from that which it was originally 
intended and understood to mean. 

This would be true whether the meaning were twisted and 
wrested by skilful and learned exegesis, or whether the in- 
terpreter pretended to have divine revelation and speak by 
the Holy Ghost. If it does not agree with other parts of 
Scripture, in its revelation of Jesus of Nazareth, through the 
writers of the New Testament, and commonly received and 
understood at that time, it must be false. 

Hence, we understand the frequent exhortations to hold 
fast " the faith once delivered," and St. Paul's reiterated ex- 
pression, " Though I, or an angel from heaven preach unto 
you any other gospel than that which I have delivered and 
which you have received, let him be accursed." Here he 
declares the fallibility of all men, including himself, and of 
angels, but the infallibility of the prophecies of God in re- 
gard to Jesus, the Son of God. This explains also the say- 
ing of early times, "Whatever is new is false." 

This explication of the text needs no further bolstering. 
Our faith in Jesus, as the Son of God, must stand or fall on 
that. 

I wish now to apply it to one article of the Cbeed : " From 
thence, he (Jesus) shall come to judge the quick and the 
dead." 

To unfold the concurrent testimony of Scripture, with all 
the details, would require a month of Sundays. I had in- 
tended to take this up at the proper time — the Advent sea- 
son, and should not have mentioned it again until then, had 
not providential circumstances compelled me to do so now. 

The question is, whether all those prophecies of the Old 
Testament, in the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets, speak- 
ing of the glorious coming of the Messiah, were fulfilled at 
Christ's first coming, or not, — whether they are ever to be 
fulfilled before his second coming, and whether they are to 
be fulfilled in some distant heaven, or whether the kingdom 
of heaven spoken of is to be on the earth. 

There are two distinct characteristics given to the Mes- 
siah, one of humiliation, the other of poiver and glory. In 
looking to see whether we have an instance of it in to-day's 



PRE-MILLENNIAL ADVENT. 13 

service, I find a remarkable one in the two Psalms of the 
Psalter for the morning prayer of the 14th day. The first 
speaks of his humiliation, the second of his kingdom and 
glory, — closing, " Blessed be the Name of His Majesty for 
ever ; and all the earth shall be filled with His Majesty, Amen, 
Amen." And in the Yenite, " He cometh to judge the earth ; 
and with righteousness to judge the world, and the people 
with his truth." And also, in the history of the humiliation 
and subsequent exaltation of the family of Jacob, through 
Joseph, whose history we are now reading. This distinc- 
tion runs all through the Old Testament scripture. I quote 
some of these, referring to his Glorious Advent. " He shall 
have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river unto the 
ends of the earth." " They that dwell in the wilderness 
shall bow before him ; yea, all kings shall fall down before 
him ; all nations shall serve him." " I shall give thee the 
heathen for thine inheritance, and the utmost parts of the 
earth for thy possession." "It shall come to pass that I 
will gather all nations and tongues ; and they shall come and 
see my glory." "I will surely assemble all of thee, O 
Jacob : I will surely gather the remnant of Israel : I will put 
them together as the sheep of Bosrah, as the flock in the 
midst of the fold." " The Redeemer shall come to Zion : the 
Lord shall arise upon her, and his glory shall be seen." 

In speaking of taming wild beasts, when the wolf shall 
dwell with the lamb, and the little child go unharmed among 
them, it says, " They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my 
holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge 
of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. And it shall come 
to pass in that day that the Root of Jesse shall stand for an 
ensign of the people ; to it shall the Gentiles seek, and his 
rest shall be glorious. And it shall come to pass in that 
day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time 
to recover the remnant of his people which shall be left 
from Assyria and from Egypt and from Pathros, and from 
Cush and from Elam, and from Shinar and from Hamath, 
and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up an 
ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of 
Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the 
four corners of the earth." 



14 PRE-MILLENNIAL ADVENT. 

A further examination of these prophecies, shows that 
they are connected with the Redeemer's coming in the clouds 
of heaven — with "all his saints," with "the dry bones risen 
to life." "He shall come down" And the angel who an- 
nounced his first advent said, " He sha.ll be great, and shall 
be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord shall give 
unto him the throne of his father David; and he shall 
reign over the house of Jacob forever." 

To unfold all these, as I said, would require many dis- 
courses ; the point is, — has it come to pass that we are to 
interpret these prophecies according to our own views? 
Do we know more now than the Apostles and Prophets? 
Has language changed, and can we put our own construction 
upon Holy Scripture? or, are we to follow St. Peter in 
believing that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private in- 
terpretation — that God has been, and is his own interpreter, 
and will, in due time, bring to pass what he has said? 
There ought to be no doubt or hesitancy on that point if we 
are to "keep the faith." 

I can do no more or better this morning, I trust, than to 
give you, in narrative form, first, How I came to dwell upon 
this subject. Second, My present position. Third, The 
authorities for it. 



I. All Christendom believes, and always has believed, 
that " Jesus Christ shall come again to judge the living and 
the dead." It says so in the Ceeed every day throughout 
the world. 

The common opinion in regard to that coming is that it is 
a gradual coming. 

The Church is supposed to be the kingdom of God, in 
which Christ is present by the Holy Spirit, and that this re- 
lationship is to continue until the whole world is converted 
to Christ, and so fulfil these prophecies, bring on the millen- 
nium, and then the end shall come. What is to take place 
after that ; where heaven shall be ; where the bodies of the 
risen are to go ; the nature of future rewards and punish- 
ments, are, for the most part, considered to be matters of 



PEE-MILLENNIAL ADVENT. 15 

opinion, conjecture, and dispute, and to be unprofitable and 
vain. 

Until recently I have concurred in the common opinion. 
I have never had until now a formulated judgment, gathered 
from personal investigation of the Scriptures, and what are 
called the " fathers " — the prominent writers of the first ages. 

In my public and private teaching on that article of the 
Creed, I have endeavored to be faithful, and have instructed 
all that they should be aliuays ready, watchful, prayerful ; 
that the Lord may come at any time, and that death was 
practically the second advent. 

Occasionally, in my ministry, I have encountered pre- 
millenarians, i. e., those who believe that XX th Reve- 
lation is to be interpreted literally, and that Christ is to 
come before the millennium and reign with the saints on the 
earth, who shall be raised from the dead for that purpose. 
I have maintained until recently, in opposition to them, that 
the millennium is to be brought about by the progress of 
Christianity, and that the earth is to be blotted out of ex- 
istence at the second advent : that Revelation is a sealed 
book, and the twentieth chapter is only a picture, a meta- 
phor of what is yet to be through the combination of reli- 
gion, science, and human progress generally. I must con- 
fess I was sometimes met with arguments which I could not 
answer, and I had no grounds in reply but common opinion 
and the authority of some received commentators of the 
Scriptures. 

Having been somewhat among, and seen the sad expe- 
rience of the Millerites about Boston in early days, I had 
become averse to the subject of the reign of Christ, and 
neither in college, nor in the seminary, nor since had I read 
any pre-millenarian works. The fathers have a good deal 
about it, but I had never read them on that point, and in 
making up my library, I had passed over books bearing on 
that subject as out of my line or unsound. Indeed, I was 
utterly ignorant upon the subject, as far as definite and ac- 
curate knowledge goes, and such writers as Bengel, Bishop 
Mede, Bishop Burnet, Dean Alford, Doctor Lord, and hosts 
of others, pre-millenarians, I had never carefully examined. 

Last winter, some of you may remember, in exjjounding 



16 PKE-MILLENNIAL ADVENT. 

the miracles during the Epiphany season, I pursued the 
mystical interpretation, and endeavored to show that Christ's 
miracles were but types of what is going on gradually by the 
progress of science, medicine, and Christianity. It is very 
beautiful and very popular, but I have to confess now, from' 
subsequent investigation, that it is not true. I was deceived 
and deceiving you. I did it ignorantly in all sincerity, and 
I am grateful for the opportunity of confessing my error to 
this congregation. 

About that time, you will also remember, the excitement 
on future punishment reached this village, and was echoed, 
I believe, from all the pulpits but this. Here I ventured to 
allude to it casually, and to solemnly warn that it was too 
awful a subject to deal with lightly. At first I was inclined 
to fall in with the general view, but it occurred to me that 
such a mixture, semi-Romish, semi-Universalist, but generally 
popular opinion, should be thoroughly examined, and the 
responsibilities of my office to Christ's flock were too great 
to rattle off any hurried or ill-considered discourses, whether 
for or against the popular cry. I determined to take the 
season of Lent for that purpose, and to reach it by what 
seemed the most reasonable, truthful, and sure method of 
treatment, avoiding antagonisms and controversy ; viz., not 
the future punishment of the wicked, but the future king- 
dom of the saints, the life of the blessed— for there is no 
punishment for them. This was without any thought of the 
Millennium at first. 

Previous to Lent, I had examined it sufficiently to find 
that many of the positions commonly accepted and taught 
in regard to prophecy are inconsistent and untenable. For 
instance, common opinion theoretically says the Lord may 
come at any time, but practically it proceeds on the theory 
that he is not to come until the world is converted : it says 
at any time ; but the Scriptures foretell, by prophetic ut- 
terance, a different time, i. c, the fulfilment of a definite 
period : it says when the world is converted ; but the Scrip- 
tures say, when there is a " falling away," a retrogression 
from true faith in a personal Christ : it says the Church is 
the kingdom of Christ ; but the Scriptures never say so, ex- 
cept by faith as the substance of things hoped for, the evi- 



P RE-MILLENNIAL ADVENT. 17 

dence of things not seen : it says after the destruction of 
this earth ; the Scriptures say the kingdom of heaven is to 
be on the earth : it says the kingdom began by the descent 
of the Holy Ghost ; but the Holy Ghost in the Scripture 
speaks of it to begin at Christ's second advent, and taught 
the Church so to pray. It confounds heaven and kingdom 
of heaven as the same thing or place, but the Scriptures, in 
most instances, distinguish the two. It says the Book of 
Revelation is a sealed prophecy, and not to be understood ; 
but Jesus himself says, " Blessed is he that keepeth " (keep- 
eth is the same word used so frequently in St. John's Gos- 
pel, — keeping his sayings and words, with the idea in it of 
" watching.") " Blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of 
the prophecy of this book." And to John he said, " Seal 
not the sayings of the prophecy of this book." 

These were sufficient to incite me to diligent application; 
and at the beginning of Lent I merely gave notice that the 
subject of the evening sermons would be the "Return of 
Christ to the Earth." I began prejudiced against the Pre- 
Millennial Advent, never having read anything in its favor. 
Putting aside all commentaries, I endeavored to find out, 
agreeably to our text in St. Peter, not my opinions or views, 
nor others' opinions, nor what the Scriptures ought to say or 
mean ; neither what would be agreeable to this congregation 
or generation, but wdiat the Scriptures said, as a whole and 
in part ; what was the mind of God from Genesis to Revela- 
tion in regard to the kingdom of God or kingdom of heaven. 
You will remember I guarded it by taking first the practical 
Christian life of duty to God and man as set forth in our 
Christian year, the key-note of which is the Advent season, 
and whether Christ were to come now or a thousand years 
hence, the practical e very-day duties of the disciple, as set 
forth in the baptismal vows, are unaltered. 

Then taking the XXth chapter of Revelation, I endeavored 
to find from Scripture whether it could be interpreted literally 
from the other portions of Scripture, taken as a whole ; and 
separately, running through Old and New Testaments. 

This you will see is agreeable to Scripture itself, which 
sa}*s the prophecy is not of any private interpretation. 
Scripture must interpret Scripture. 
2 



18 PBE-MILLEKNIAL ADVENT. 

It is right, too, to take first the literal understanding. " It 
is one of the plainest and most cogent of all the rules of her- 
meneutics, that every passage of Scripture, or of any other 
book, is to be interpreted as bearing its plain and primary 
and literal sense, unless good reason can be given why it 
should be tropically understood." Hooker says: "I hold it 
for a most infallible rule in expositions of Sacred Scripture, 
that when a literal construction will stand, the farthest from 
the letter is commonly the worst." 

Hence, proceeding on that ground for six Sunday nights, I 
gave you not my own views, but the results of my examina- 
tion of the Scriptures as to their literal interpretation of XX th 
Revelation. I came out at the end thoroughly convinced 
that there are to be tivo Resurrections, and that all the pro- 
phecies of the Old Testament, speaking of the glorious reign 
of Messiah, the Son of David, the King of Israel, to whom all 
nations shall be subject and every knee shall bow, is neither 
the reign of Christ in the heart, nor the progress of Chris- 
tianity, but is to be fulfilled at the first Resurrection, when 
Christ comes again to rule the world and bind Satan. 

I can never express to you how it has cleared away the fogs 
in my own mind on some vexed questions, and what an un- 
speakable comfort it is at all times. I feel confident, too, 
that those who attended and gave heed to the matter during 
Lent were not a little strengthened in their faith in the 
simple old Gospel of the Son of God, and the life of the age 
and kingdom to come, in opposition to modern gospels, and 
the life and kingdom that is of this age. 

I come now to the second point, my present position. 

II. I felt it to be my duty not to hide the light under a 
bushel. I wrote an article for one of our Church periodicals, 
not dogmatically, but suggestively, calling attention by ques- 
tions, and stating my convictions. This opened the way, and 
subsequently I have corresponded or conversed with prob- 
ably two score of the clergy of our Church, with this result. 
The few who have investigated the matter stand exactly 
where I do, believers in the Pre-Millennial Advent. Some 
are now examining it ; but from the majority come such re- 
marks as these : "It is not practical;" "It will be misunder- 
stood;" "We do not know anything about it;" "It is an un- 



PKE-MILLEKNIAL ADVENT. 19 

orthodox opinion;" "It will hurt you;" "It is not prudent 
to deal with a subject which is considered visionary;" "If 
you had known the trouble the Advent excitement had 
brought to some people, you would not touch that subject;" 
"The Church is the kingdom of God, this is the Millennium, 
and there is nothing to come but Heaven;" "It will cast sus- 
picion on your soundness in the faith, people will not inves- 
tigate it, and you had better deal with things which they can 
understand." 

These and other like remarks are the burden of " clerical 
opinions," frequently accompanied by some catch phrase of 
Scripture : "My kingdom is not of this world ;" "The day and 
the hour knoweth no man;" "No prophecy of the Scripture 
is of any private interpretation;" "Let Christ rule in your 
hearts by faith ;" which is simply begging the question, often 
betraying ignorance of the context and bearing of the Scrip- 
ture which they quote, and a misapprehension of "appoint- 
ing a day," with which this, primarily, has nothing to do. 
But the undercurrent of thought in them all is "to succeed," 
"to build up one's congregation or sect," "to gather in num- 
bers, make the people feel happy, and raise funds," "ad- 
vance, increase the kingdom of Christ," which is the very point 
at issue. When I have applied direct questions : "Have you 
investigated it?" "Can you say from your own knowledge 
whether or no it is true?" "Have you formed your judg- 
ment from a personal examination of the Scriptures and the 
fathers?" the answer in every case is a negative, defended 
merely by a sweeping assertion that it was a doctrine very 
early condemned in the Church, and always since held to be 
a delusion. 

Thus far my investigation was almost entirely original. 
The only work consulted was a little pamphlet, first pub- 
lished some two hundred years ago, which fell into my 
hands during Lent. 

I determined that I ought to go over the ground again, 
more thoroughly and with help, and with all the authority 
that could be given to it, according to the. position in which 
I find myself — a Presbyter of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church. I was not long in deciding that the persons and 
place ought to be the Council of the Church, where we pro- 



20 PRE-MILLENNIAL ADVENT. 

fess to have especially the presence of the Holy Spirit, and 
pray to be " saved from all error, ignorance, pride, and pre- 
judice," and to be " directed, sanctified, and governed by the 
power of the Holy Ghost." If the matter were entertained, 
I should have company, counsel, and authority in the in- 
vestigation. If it were thrown out, I would have done my 
duty, and could not be blamed for acting alone. Hence I 
offered the resolution in Convention which, together with 
the sermons, calls forth this explanation. 

The time will come when the resolution will be remem- 
bered. 

Delusion is but a relative term after all. No one has ever 
contended for an old truth of divine revelation, nor dis- 
covered a new one in material things without more or less 
misunderstanding and suffering. If one shunned or dropped 
a matter which he believed to be true, because it was un- 
popular, there would have been no preservation of divine 
revelation ; no salvation, indeed, to the human race, for 
Jesus would not have ivillingly died, and no progress in the 
arts or sciences. A man is neither right nor wrong because 
he suffers for his faith ; it depends upon the truth of the 
thing for which he suffers. A thief suffers, and brings dis- 
grace upon his family. We do not sympathize with him be- 
cause he is a thief. The Millerites suffered, and others, for 
appointing a day ; we do not sympathize wholly with them 
because they erred in appointing a day. Jesus suffered, and 
his followers for three centuries ; we do sympathize with them 
because they told the truth. No perversions or abuse of that 
truth can ever make us give up the truth itself. In the case of 
divine revelation the probabilities are, that one must suffer 
here for holding it, for from Abel down, faith in the literal 
promises of God is on the unpopular side. It is written, 
"All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer perse- 
cution." And again, " In the world ye shall have tribula- 
tion, but be of good cheer, for " — now mark what He says, 
for I shall refer to it again, not " go on ye and overcome the 
world," — but " I have overcome the world." They were to be 
witnesses, merely, for him and his victory, until his return 
to enjoy the fruit, when they should be partakers with him. 

This, therefore, is my present position. Christ is to come 



PRE-MILLENNIAL ADYENT. 21 

before, not after, the Millennium. It is a truth of divine reve- 
lation, a prophecy of Scripture, not of my own interpreta- 
tion, not my own view, but gathered in spite of my preju- 
dices. I can do no more nor less than bear witness to it ; to 
keep it and wait the issue. 

III. I come now to authorities outside of Scripture. As I 
have already stated, my first investigation was from the 
Scriptures and unaided. I had found it stated, merely, that 
"some of the fathers accepted, and some rejected it." I had 
never verified the statements or quotations. My position 
has excited such unfavorable comment, that I went to the 
General Seminary in New York to refer to the original 
authorities, or translations of the same, in the writings of 
the fathers. Some of the following I have obtained there, 
but subsequently I have received a copy of a book, The* 
Last Times* by the Rev. J. A. Seiss, D.D., a Lutheran 
divine of Philadelphia, who treats the subject very fully, 
and to whom I am indebted for some of these extracts. 

The most trustworthy fathers are those from the Apostles' 
time down to the Council of Nice, a.d. 325. They gave us 
the Ceeeds ; they decided what was, and what was not, Scrip- 
ture. Their writings and opinions are valuable as witnesses 
to what was then accepted and understood as revealed truth. 
That which renders their writings particularly valuable is, 
that then the gift of prophecy, to which I have alluded, was 
continued in the congregations. Hence their understand- 
ing of XXth Revelation, as well as the whole subject of 
the reign of Christ, which is the burden of prophecy, 
whether it were to be a literal or metaphorical resurrection 
and reign, is most valuable ; for it is not presumable, indeed 
it is morally impossible that the Holy Spirit should leave 
them in error, and permit them to suffer for it, for three 
hundred years. 

1. Barnabas. Possibly the same mentioned in Acts, iv. 36, 
37 ; ix. 24, etc. The companion of Paul. At all events, the 
writer of an epistle bearing his name, as early as the begin- 
ning of the second century. 

This writer, in expounding the fourth commandment, says, 

* J. B. Lippincott & Co., Phil., pp. 438. 



22 PRE-MTLLENNIAL ADVENT. 

" Even in the beginning of the creation He makes mention 
of the Sabbath, and says, God made in six days the works of 
his hands ; and he finished them on the seventh day and 
sanctified it. Consider, my children, what that signifies ; He 
finished them in six days. The meaning of it is this — that in 
six thousand years the Lord God will bring all things to an 
end. For with him one day is a thousand years ; as him- 
self testifieth, saying, Behold this day shall be as a thousand 
years. Therefore, children, in six days, that is in six thou- 
sand years, shall all things be accomplished. And what is 
that he saith, ' And he rested the seventh day ' ? He meaneth 
this, that when his Son shall come, and abolish the season 
of the wicked one, and judge the ungodly, and shall change 
the sun and the moon and the stars ; then he shall gloriously 
test in that seventh day. He adds, lastly, Thou shalt sanc- 
tify it with clean hands and a pure heart. Wherefore we 
are greatly deceived if we imagine that any one can now 
sanctify that day which God has made holy, without having 
a heart pure in all things. Behold, therefore, he will then 
truly sanctify it with blessed rest, when we (having received 
the righteous promise, when iniquity shall be no more, all 
things being renewed by the Lord) shall be able to sanctify 
it, being ourselves first made holy." [Archbishop Wake's 
translation. London. S. Bagster, 1817. Epistle of Barna- 
bas, ch. xv., pp. 326-7.] 

2. Clement, Bishop of Borne, probably the same men- 
tioned in Phil. iv. 3 ; Second Epistle, chapter ix. " Let 
not any among you say that this very flesh is not judged nor 
raised up. Consider in what were ye saved ; in what did ye 
look up, if not whilst ye were in this flesh ? We must there- 
fore keep our flesh as the temple of God. For in like man- 
ner as ye were called in the flesh, ye shall also come to 
judgment in the flesh. . . . We shall in this flesh re- 
ceive the reward : Let us therefore love one another, that 
we may attain unto the kingdom of God." 

First Epistle, chapter xxiii. "Of a truth yet a little 
while, and His tvill shall suddenly be accomplished. The Holy 
Scripture itself bearing witness, "that he shall quickly 
come and will not tarry, and that the Lord shall suddenly 
come to his temple, even the Holy One whom ye look for." 



PBE-MILLENNIAL ADVENT. 23 

Chapter xxxiv., speaking of the Second Advent. "The 
whole earth is full of His glory. Wherefore let us also, 
being conscientiously gathered together in concord with one 
another, as it were with one mouth, cry earnestly unto him, 
that he would make us partakers of liis great and glorious 
promises." Chapter 1. "They who have been made per- 
fect in love have, by the grace of God, obtained a place 
among the righteous, and shall be made manifest in the 
judgment of the kingdom of Christ." Second Epistle, 
chapter xii. "Wherefore let us every hour expect the 
kingdom of God in love and righteousness ; because we 
know not the day of God's appearing." 

These two apostolic witnesses wrote before the Revelation 
was given to St. John. In the quotations I have given, they 
express the belief : 1. That the Lord was to come at a de- 
finite time. 2. Then was to be fulfilled the prophecies 
spoken to Israel of a kingdom on the earth in the flesh. Cle- 
ment quotes Malachi, iii. 1. 3. It was to be the kingdom of 
God, or kingdom of Christ, and his hearers are urged to make 
themselves worthy to obtain it. 4 It was to be the fulfilment 
of the Sabbath Day of rest and fill the whole earth. 

3. Heemas. See Romans, xvi. 14 He wrote about A.D. 
100. In a vision he was told of a renovated world in this 
language : " Behold the mighty Lord, who, by his invisible 
power and with his excellent wisdom made the world, and 
by his glorious counsel beautified his creature, and with 
the word of his strength fixed the heaven and founded the 
earth upon the waters, and by his mighty power established 
his Holy Church, which he hath blessed : Behold he will re- 
move the heavens and the mountains, the hills and the seas, 
and all things shall be made plain, for his elect ; that he may 
render unto them the promise which he has promised, with 
much honor and joy ; if so be that they shall keep the com- 
mandments of God, which they have received with great faith." 

In another vision, the fourth, he is shown the trials which 
are to purge the saints before the time of the world to come 
in which the saints are to dwell. [Archbishop Wake. 
Vision of Hermas, I. 3, iv.] 

4 Papias (Seiss), Bishop of Hierapolis, a learner from 
St. John. He wrote, a.d. 116, a work entitled "An Expli- 



24 PRE-MILLENNIAL ADVENT. 

cation of the Oracles of our Lord, in five books. Fragments 
of this have been preserved by the historian Eusebius, who 
says of him that he believed " there will be a certain mil- 
lennium of the resurrection of the dead, when Christ will 
reign bodily (personally) upon this very earth." 

5. Justin Martyr. Born, a.d. 89. Martyred a.d. 163. 
He was a man of great piety and learning ; a convert from 
pagan philosophy. Several of his works remain. I 
quote : "I, and as many as are orthodox Christians, do ac- 
knowledge that there shall be. a resurrection of the body, 
and a residence of a thousand years in Jerusalem, rebuilt 
and enlarged, as the prophets, Ezekiel, Isaiah and others 
do unanimously attest. . . . Moreover, a certain man 
among us, whose name was John, one of the Apostles of 
Christ, in a Revelation made to him, did prophesy that the 
faithful believers in Christ shall live a thousand years in the 
New Jerusalem, and aHer that shall be the general resurrec- 
tion and judgment." Again, " If ye meet with some called 
Christians, but who confess not this (i. e., the first resurrec- 
tion and the millennium), but even dare to blaspheme the 
God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of 
Jacob, who say also that there is no resurrection of the 
dead, but that immediately upon death their souls are re- 
ceived up into heaven, think not these to be Christians." 

6. Iren^eus (Seiss) speaks of the millenium as belong- 
ing to the " full soundness of the faith." " Something un- 
doubted, questioned only by some of those accounted ortho- 
dox, and the opposed views, as novel in the church, and 
transplanted from heretical discourses." 

Again. " It is fitting that the just, rising again at the 
appearance of God, should, in the renewed state, receive 
the promise of inheritance, which God covenanted to the 
fathers, and should reign in it ; and that then should follow 
the final judgment. For in the same condition in which 
they have labored and been afiiicted, and been tried by suf- 
ferings in all sorts of ways, it is but just that in it they 
should receive the fruits of their sufferings, so that where 
for the love of God they suffered death, there they should 
be brought to life again ; and where they endured bondage, 
there also they should reign,'" 



• PKE-MILLENNIAL ADVENT. 25 

Again. " It is becoming that the creation restored to its 
original beanty, should, without any impediment or draw- 
back, be subject to the righteous. This the Apostle makes 
manifest in the Epistle to the Romans." 

" Thus therefore as God promised to Abraham the inher- 
itance of the earth, and he received it not during the whole 
time he lived, it is necessary that he should receive it, 
together with his seed, that is, with such of them as fear 
God and believe in him, in the resurrection of the just. 
They will undoubtedly receive it at the resurrection of the 
just, for true and unchangeable is God ; wherefore he also 
said, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." 

7. Tebtullian, born a.d. 160. Educated for the law. He 
wrote an entire work on the subjects involved in the Mil- 
lennium, entitled Concerning the Hope of the Faithful, which 
has been lost, but fragments are found preserved in his- 
tory. Elsewhere he states his concurrence with Irenseus, 
Justin Martyr, and others. Here is his testimony : " We 
also confess that a kingdom is promised us on the earth, 
after the resurrection; for it will be a thousand years in a 
city of divine workmanship, viz., Jerusalem brought down 
from heaven, which city Ezekiel knew, and the Apostle John 
saw. This is the city provided of God to receive the saints 
in the resurrection, wherein to refresh themselves with all 
spiritual good things, in recompense of those icliich in the ivorld 
we have despised and lost.'" 

These witnesses to the belief in the Pre-Millennial Advent, 
bring us to about a.d. 200. 

Writers passed over during that period are : Ignatius, 
Bishop of Antioch, the disciple of St. John, martyred, a.d. 
107. He wrote seven epistles. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, 
also disciple of John, martyred a.d. 167 ; he wrote one 
epistle. Tatian, disciple of Justin Martyr ; one work re- 
maining. Melito, Bishop of Sardis, died a.d. 170 ; con- 
temporary of Justin Martyr ; writings lost, but spoken of as 
holding this belief. Clement of Alexandria, a.d. 192. 

Portions of the writings of these persons which have been 
preserved contain nothing for or against the belief in the 
reign of Christ on the earth in direct language, but as they 
contain nothing against it, the presumption would be that 



26 PEE-MELLENNIAL ADVENT. # 

they concurred in the prevailing belief. But the evidence 
is stronger than presumption. 

They were either the disciples of, or intimately associated 
with, those I have quoted, and are spoken of as receiving 
the doctrine of the Millennium, which was the common be- 
lief of the time. 

Further, some of them wrote upon the Millennium, and 
though their works are lost to us, they were extant in early 
days, and are never quoted as being against the commonly 
received belief by those who subsequently opposed it, as 
they would have been if there had been anything in them 
which seemed to contradict the doctrine. Therefore all the 
fathers from St. Paul's day to the year 200, must be reck- 
oned as Millenarians in the literal sense, as expressed in St. 
John's Revelation. In the next century, from the beginning 
of the third to the beginning of the fourth, the doctrine 
began to be questioned from causes which we shall speak 
of presently, but in its favor are found Hippolytus, Bishop 
of Porto, a.d. 222 ; Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, A.D. 248 ; 
Commodeon, contemporary of Cyprian; Yictorinus, Bishop 
of Pettau, a.d. 290 ; Methodius, Bishop of Tyre, a.d. 300. 
Nepos, a Bishop in Egypt, about the same time wrote against 
those who had originated a new and figurative interpreta- 
tion of Scripture, especially of the Millennium. 

8. Lactantius (Seiss), a.d. 300. This person is a most 
valuable witness. Mosheim the historian pronounces him 
to be the most learned of the Latin fathers. He has more 
upon the subject of the Millennium than any other writer. 
The doctrine had then gotten to be extensively disputed, 
and he seems to have made it a special study, fie says : 
" When God shall come to judge the world and shall restore 
unto life the just that have been since the beginning, he shall 
converse among men a thousand years., and rule them with a 
. most righteous government, and they that shall be raised from 
the dead shall be over the living as judges. And the Gentiles 
shall not be utterly extinguished, but some shall be left for 
the victory of God. About the same time the prince of devils, 
the forger of all evil, shall be bound with chains, and shall 
be in custody all the thousand years of the heavenly empire 
under which righteousness shall reign over the world." 



PBE-MTLLENNIAL ADVENT. 27 

9. Finally, it was affirmed incidentally at the first great 
general Council of the Church at Nice in Bithynia, a.d. 
325, where 318 Bishops were assembled. This Council was 
called to defend the faith of the Church against the Arian 
heresy. The doctrine of the reign of Christ on the earth 
was neither, in direct language, affirmed nor denied. But 
the article of the Creed, " He shall come again with glory to 
judge both the living and the dead, whose kingdom shall 
have no end," must, plainly, be understood as they under- 
stood it, and in its literal sense. There is nothing in the 
language, if we had no other data, to forbid the understand- 
ing that when he came, he was to remain here in his king- 
dom on the earth. But the Council also put forth a body 
of canons, and Bishop Mede has shown, after a careful ex- 
amination of these, and the history of the proceedings of the 
Council, that the Church then held the Pre-Millenarian doc- 
trine. Dr. Thomas Hartley, a translator of that portion of 
Bishop Mede's works, says, "This doctrine (the reign of 
Christ with his saints on the earth) stands upon the same 
authority as does that of the Nicene Creed, and this Council 
interprets that promise of our Saviour, that the meek shall 
inherit the earth, into a confirmation of, and identity of 
sense with, the same prophetical declarations to be found in 
many places of the psalms and prophets." 

Thus we have the testimony of the early Church down to, 
and including the Council of Nice, as to its understanding of 
the Millennium — the fulfilment at the second Advent on 
the earth of all the glorious promises made to Christ, and 
those whom he shall deem worthy to receive into his king- 
dom. 

To these may be added the confirming testimony of histo- 
rians. 

1. Gibbon. " The ancient Christians were animated by a 
contempt for their present existence, and by a just confi- 
dence of immortality, of which the doubtful and imperfect 
faith of modern ages cannot give us any adequate notion. 
In the primitive Church, the influences of truth were very 
powerfully strengthened by an opinion, which, however it 
may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, has not 
been found agreeable to experience. It was universally be- 



28 TEE-MILLENNIAL ADVENT. 

lieved that the end of the world, and the kingdom of heaven were at 
hand. The near approach of this wonderful event had been 
predicted by the Apostles ; the tradition of it was preserved 
by their earliest disciples, and those who understood in their 
literal sense the discourses of Christ himself, were obliged to 
expect the second and glorious coming of the Son of Man in 
the clouds, before that generation was totally extinguished. 
. . . The ancient and popular doctrine of the Millennium tuas 
intimately connected with the second coming of Christ. As the 
works of the creation had been finished in six days, their du- 
ration in their present state, according to a tradition which 
was attributed to the Prophet Elijah, was fixed at six thou- 
sand years. By the same analogy it was inferred that this 
long period of labor and contention, which was now almost 
elapsed, would be succeeded by a joyful Sabbath of a thou- 
sand years ; and that Christ, with the triumphant band of 
the saints, and the elect who had escaped death, or who had 
been miraculously revived, would reign upon earth till the 
time appointed for the last and general resurrection. . . . 
The assurance of such a Millennium was carefully inculcated by a 
succession of fathers, from Justin Martyr and Irenceus, who con- 
versed with the immediate disciples of the Apostles, down 
to Lactantius, who was preceptor to the son of Constantine. 
Though it might not be universally received, it appears to 
have been the reigning sentiment of the orthodox believers ; and it 
seems so well adapted to the desires and apprehensions of 
mankind, that it must have contributed in a very consider- 
able degree to the progress of the Christian faith." 

The celebrated historian speaks of this as an error and 
delusion, but he was an infidel and believed Jesus of Naza- 
reth and the Apostles to have been deluded. Since he gives 
truthful testimony to the primitive faith, we must conclude 
that either Gibbon, or the Apostles and fathers were de- 
luded and unfaithful to revealed truth. 

2. Chillingwokth (Seiss). " The doctrine of the Millenaries 
was believed and taught by the most eminent fathers of the 
age next after the Apostles, and by none of that age opposed 
or condemned. Therefore it was the Catholic doctrine of 
those times." 

3. Mosheim. " The prevailing opinion that Christ was to 



PRE-MILLENNIAL ADVENT. 29 

come and reign a thousand years among men before the final 
dissolution of the world had met with no opposition previous to 
the time of Origen." 

4. Bishop Newton, author of a celebrated work on the 
prophecies. " The doctrine of the Millennium was generally 
believed in the three first and purest ages." 

5. Semisch (Seiss). (Herzocfs Encyclop.) " The ancients ex- 
pected a kingdom in this world, in which Christ, after his 
coming, should reign with his risen and glorified saints ; that 
he would visibly return in order to establish a terrestrial 
theocracy as the centre of a dominion over the world ; that 
he would destroy the kingdom of Antichrist and subjugate 
such worldly powers as are susceptible of being fashioned 
for the divine kingdom ; that there would be a distinction in 
the resurrection, first the resurrection of the saints for the 
divine kingdom, and afterwards of the rest of the dead at the 
final judgment ; that there would then be perfect happiness 
of soul and sense, and the glorified saints reign together 
over unglorified humanity." 

The reformers, Luther, Melancthon, Cranmer, Latimer, 
Ridley, held the primitive faith, as I shall show presently. 
And subsequent to the Reformation Bishop Tillotson ; Bishop 
Mecle, who flourished in the first half of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, one of the greatest biblical scholars the English Church 
has produced ; Bishop Burnet, Dr. Thomas Hartley, John 
Bengel, author of the Gnomon; and possibly or in part, John 
and Charles Wesley, though Arminianism does not harmon- 
ize with the primitive faith. Of the present day, Dean Al- 
ford, recently deceased, the author of a commentary on the 
Scriptures ; Dr. Lord, late President of Dartmouth College ; 
and, I am informed, some of the most prominent of the bish- 
ops and clergy of our Church, but as my evidence is only 
hearsay, I will not venture to mention names. In England, 
Bickersteth, Bonar, Lord Shaftesbury, and many others. 

(I think I may add to this list the name of the late Bishop 
of this diocese, the Rev. Dr. Hopkins, than whom this cen- 
tury has produced no more humble-minded student of the 
Scriptures, nor fearless exponent of the faith. In common 
with many others he had accepted the traditionary opinion, 
that the Pope of Rome is Antichrist. In 1866-7, however, he 



30 PKE-MILLENNIAL ADVENT. 

prepared a work entitled The Pope not Antichrist* show- 
ing the opinion to be untenable. From this I quote, " Cer- 
tain also it is that the thousand years stated by St. John 
for the Millennium have always been understood literally, as 
the very name, Millennium, universally adopted, shows most 
plainly." 

The Millennium is immediately connected with Anti- 
christ, for Christ is to come to reign, when Antichrist is 
fully developed ; when " the mystery of iniquity . . . becomes 
from the midst " (II. Thess. ii. 7) ; and I am informed that 
shortly before his death the Bishop prepared another work 
on the Millennium, which has never been published, and I 
have not yet seen the MS. t) 

So far as I am able to discover, by inquiry and reading, all 
who thoroughly and candidly investigate it, with the same unpre- 
judiced mind required in accepting Jesus as the Son of God, re- 
ceive it. But all, friends and enemies alike, acknowledge that 
it was the orthodox belief of the first three centuries. 

Now, one naturally asks: "How is it that so many learned 
and good men in every generation since have rejected it?" 
.The few which I have had time to examine I find have re- 
jected it from the prejudice of previous education, or because 
they have their private ends to gain, or — and this is the most 
critical point of all — because they go to Scripture with pre- 
conceived ideas of its teaching, and put their private interpre- 
tation upon the prophecies of God ; in a word, setting forth 
their vieivs of the Scriptures. I give you some instances which 
I have looked up in my own library. 

1. De. Stackhouse, who flourished in the first part of the 
eighteenth century, and wrote a celebrated work, The Body 
of Divinity. He first states the early doctrine as we have 
already stated it, and then says: % "It cannot be denied, in- 
deed, but that this doctrine has its antiquity, and, as an 
ancient father acquaints us, tvas once the general opinion of all 
orthodox Christians ; and yet" (now mark what he says) "upon 
a close inquiry it seems not so very consistent with what the 



* Hurd & Houghton, N. Y., 1868, pp. 150. 

f See Introduction. 

X Stackhouse, Body of Divinity. Part IV. , sec. 1. 



PKE-MILLEXXIAL ADVENT. 31 

Scriptures affirm concerning our Saviour, that -the heavens 
must receive him, until the times of the restitution of all things; 1 
nor does it at all comport with the received notions of the happy 
state of souls departed. For how can it be rationally sup- 
posed that those spirits of just men made perfect, which are 
now with Christ, and, being absent from the body and present 
with the Lord, should ever leave those blessed mansions, and 
quit that happy state, to live on earth a thousand years ? " 
Dr. Stackhouse continues to load the doctrine with other ob- 
jections at considerable length, and then concludes as fol- 
lows: 

"Since, therefore, the doctrine of Christ's personal reign 
upon earth is loaded with so many inconsistencies, there is 
a necessity for understanding that passage in Revelation in 
a figurative sense ; and if we reduce it to a literal meaning, it 
will denote no more than this, viz. : That though Christians 
in preceding ages were cruelly and inhumanly treated by 
their merciless persecutors, though Christ's kingdom in those 
times labored under great and unmistakable miseries, yet 
upon the entrance of the joyful Millennium (for there shall 
be on earth such a Millennium, though not of the nature 
which either ancient or modern Chiliasts assert) all those 
troublesome and afflictive things shall cease ; the faithful 
shall be put into the possession of an undisturbed repose and 
serenity ; the Christian Church after its troubles and morti- 
fications shall revive — shall rise, as it ' were, out of its grave, 
and there shall be such an universal profession of Chris- 
tianity as if all the departed good Christians were alive 
again, and come upon the stage of this world once more ! " 
Here we find the learned Doctor — 

1st. Going to the Scripture with the notion that imme- 
diately upon death the soul goes to heaven, of which Justin 
Martyr says, "those who hold such opinions are not be con- 
sidered as Christians;" 2dly, he loads it with inconsistencies 
on the ground of that error, and others which are perversions 
of the truth ; then, 3dly, puts his own interpretation upon the 
language of Scripture, and constructs an " as it were " Millen- 
nium, on the ground that the Church is the kingdom of 
Christ; and, 4thly, takes away in every age the martyr's in- 
dividual hope of reward. 



1 



32 PEE-MILLENNIAL ADVENT. 



2. Bishop Wokdswokth, now living, and author of a cele- 
brated commentary on the Scriptures. This author I studied 
in the Seminary, and have followed quite extensively since. 
He is not so honest, I am sorry to say, as Dr. Stackhouse, last 
quoted. He says, on the doctrine of the Millennium: "The 
foregoing verses of this chapter (Eev. xx.) have been under- 
stood by some to intimate that Christ will come from heaven, 
at his next appearance, in order to raise the saints from their 
graves, and in order to reign with them upon earth for a 
thousand years. This doctrine is inconsistent with the lan- 
guage of the Apocalypse in particular, and with the general 
doctrine of Holy Scripture, and with the teaching of the 
Catholic Church." 

From what I have shown of the testimony of the early 
Church, the Bishop is clearly in error, and we should suspect 
that he disparages the doctrine in order to give weight to his 
own views. And we find he has his own peculiar view of the 
prophecies of Revelation, which he gives at great length in 
his Commentary and his work on the Apocalypse. He gives 
ten reasons fox rejecting the doctrine of the reign of Christ,* 
which I will not quote in full, but you may judge of their 
force from these examples : 

1. That "the doctrine of the Millennium involves the resur- 
rection of the bodies," but St. John says, "the souls." But 
the language is, "the souls of them that were beheaded." A 
soul, according to the Bishop's definition, cannot be beheaded. 

His sixth reason is, that "the doctrine involves reigning, but 
the Scriptures say Christ shall come to judge" The learned 
Bishop must have known that in Jewish government, as well 
as all ancient governments, the reigning king was a judge. 

His tenth reason is, that it involves the return of Christ to 
"this low and little earth." But this earth was made glorious 
and beautiful for man's eternal life in communion with God ; 
it is cursed only by the presence of sin, Satan, and death; 
and its eternal redemption is promised to man eternally re- 
deemed, which is the burden of the prophecies of both Tes- 
taments. His other objections are no more tenable than 
these I have given. 

* Wordsworth, Com., Rev. xx. 6, vol. ii.,p. 268. 



PKE-MILLENNIAL ADVENT. 33 

3. Bishop Middleton, late Lord Bishop of Calcutta, the 
author of the celebrated work on the Greek Article. He 
rejects the doctrine, and makes Justin Martyr say (the one 
whom we have already quoted in its favor) : " Many Chris- 
tians of pure and pious principles rejected it." Bishop New- 
ton, in his work on Prophecy, has shown that Justin Martyr 
does not contradict himself.* The language is : " Many not 
of pure and pious principles did not acknowledge it. For 
some " (says he) " are called Christians, but are atheistical 
and ungodly heretics." Shortly after Justin adds: "Some 
are called Christians and do not confess this, and deny the re- 
surrection of the dead, but I, and as many as are orthodox 
Christians in all respects, do acknowledge that there shall be a 
resurrection of the flesh and a thousand years in Jerusalem." 

Bishop Newton, speaking of this perversion of the truth, 
says : " It is seriously to be lamented that so learned and 
ingenious a man, and so very fine a writer as Dr. Middleton 
was, should, in support of any argument, have been guilty 
of so many false quotations as he has been. . . . Forgery 
should be deemed a capital offence in literary as well as in 
civil affairs. It has been the fate of Justin to have his sense 
misrepresented by others as well as by Dr. Middleton." 

Let these suffice. They are leaders and teachers of theo- 
logical opinion. We all know how hard it is, when prejudiced, 
to change our minds, and when to prejudice is added private 
interests, a State Church, and the fear of public sentiment, 
we can understand the efforts of even great scholars to 
maintain an .honest opinion at almost any cost, and to be led 
unwittingly even to believe a lie. 

But another question naturally asked is, " How came 
this doctrine into disrepute and to be so obscured ? " 

If you have thought or talked about it yourselves, you 
will be able to judge how liable it is to be misunderstood 
and loaded with sensual and temporal thoughts ; that it is 
the old Jewish error of a temporal kingdom on the earth. 
And such is the fact in early days. I do not give you my 
own surmisings, but the records of history ; that the corrup- 
tion of the best thing is always the worst. 

* Newton on the Prophecies, Diss. XXV 



34 PRE-MILLENNIAL ADVENT. 

" Very soon Jewish and Christian writers debased it with 
a mixture of fables." " They described the kingdom, not as 
in the Scripture, a spiritual and holy existence, but more 
like a sensual than a spiritual kingdom, and thereby they 
have not only exposed themselves, but what is infinitely 
worse, the doctrine itself, to contempt and ridicule." " It 
has suffered by the misrepresentations of its enemies as well 
as by the indiscretions of its friends." 

Another says : " The doctrine was seized and perverted 
by fanaticism." There is evidence, however, of a continu- 
ous struggle to preserve the true doctrine, and one writer 
exhorts that it be " earnestly inculcated." 

Those who rejected the doctrine of the Millennium, re- 
jected or doubted the Apocalypse of St. John.* 

As long, however, as the truth was held and defended by 
the ministry, chosen and sent for that purpose, the Church 
was kept comparatively free from internal trouble, and the 
gift of the spirit of prophecy was continued. But there are 
two periods, somewhat clearly marked, whence sprang two 
erroneous ideas of the Millennium, which continue to this 
day, and have combined to obscure and bring into disrepute 
the primitive and true doctrine. 

I. The first is the figurative interpretation. Its author was 
the famous Origen (a.d. 185-254), of the renowned School of 
Alexandria in Egypt, and the compiler of the Hexapla. 
Like Justin Martyr, he was a pagan philosopher. He is 
described as "a man of vast intellectual power, stupendous 
learning, great Scriptural knowledge, and earnest, practical 
Christianity, "t 

In dealing with the doctrine of the Millennium, instead 
of accepting it in its literal sense, as did all the other fathers 
and the whole Church, " he conceived it to be his mission, 
and he made it the principal object of his life to effect a 
compromise, to bring about a harmonious union between 
philosophy and Christianity, and to present Christianity in 
such a form to the intellectual classes of all religions that 

* After the prevalence of Origenism, the Revelation of St. John " very 
narrowly escaped the proscription of the Church " in the Council of Laodi- 
cea, a.d. (cir.) 365. 

f See Blunt's Theol. Diet. 



PEE-MILLENNIAL ADVENT. 35 

they should be ready to accept it as the most reasonable of 
all." He became the founder of the famous Alexandrian 
School of Mystic Theology. " It amalgamated the different 
forms of philosophical and religious opinion." We find a 
century later that it was one of the tenets of this school to 
find a figurative meaning in everything, and to lead on the 
heathen little by little to accept Christ. (Seiss.) Theon, a 
Bishop of Alexandria, in a.d. 290, " charges those about the 
court to be careful not to give unnecessary offence. The 
librarian should make himself master of every branch of 
literature, incidentally commend the Scriptures, introduce 
the name of Christ, and, as opportunity offered, disclose the 
real dignity of his nature." " Origen himself carried the 
principle of allegorical interpretation to an extremely bold 
length, enunciating speculations which seemed to come into 
conflict with the traditional belief of the Church." (Blunt.) 
" His vast intellectual power, however, gathered around him 
most of the leaders of thought among the Christians of Alex- 
andria, and some of his distinctive speculations were ex- 
aggerated by his pupils in the succeeding generation. Even 
in his lifetime this exaggeration had reached such an extent 
as to draw complaints from him." He taught that * " the 
soul, being of a spiritual nature, is considered to be inde- 
structible, its eternal existence being dependent solely on 
the will of God. But as all things exist as emanations of 
the exuberant life of God, it is a necessary law of his un- 
bounded love that his life should pour itself forth into all 
possible forms of being. The existence of the soul thus be- 
ing necessary to the love of God, it followed from this that 
there was a pre-existence of the soul and a future existence, 
and that it was condemned to inhabit this body as a punish- 
ment for sins committed during their pre-existent state." 

This was simply an attempt to Christianize Platonic phi- 
losophy. The resurrection of the body was not altogether 
denied, but the risen body is assumed to be a " pure ethe- 
real vehicle capable of assisting though not of hindering 
the holiness of the soul." His opinion on the future state, 
which, in combination with other traditionary opinions, was 

* See Blunt's Theol. Diet. , art. Origenism. 



36 PKE-MILLENNIAL ADVENT. 

exaggerated by his followers into a doctrine of purgatory, 
and also into Universalism, was " that it will consist of in- 
tense mental torture, the sting of conscience ; and further, 
that a time will come when even this will pass away, and 
those who have suffered under it, perhaps for ages, will be 
restored to the favor of God." Of his interpretation of 
Scripture this is a sample : "What edification could we find 
in literally interpreting the story of Abraham's first telling 
Abimelech a lie, and then, with Sarah's consent, handing 
her over to him, and prostituting her?" He reduces to a 
metaphor the history of Moses, and those accompanying 
thrilling incidents, upon which the moral history of the 
world hinges. He was the first, as far as we know, who 
made long discourses in public, and of his disciples (Seiss) 
" one is said to have preached seven sermons on the inter- 
jection ' O,' and another found place for eighty-two points of 
comparison between the Bride of Christ and the horses of 
Pharaoh's chariot." 

" Dr. Mosheim * states the following as Origen's general 
rule for determining when a passage of Scripture may be 
taken literally, and when not, viz. : whenever the words, if 
understood literally, will afford a valuable meaning, one 
that is worthy of God, useful to men, and accordant with 
truth and correct reason, then the literal meaning is to be 
retained : but whenever the words, if understood literally, 
will express what is absurd, or false, or contrary to correct 
reason, or useless, or unworthy of God, then the literal 
sense is to be discarded, and the moral and mystical alone 
to be regarded. This rule he applies to every part both of 
the Old and New Testament." 

The influence of Origen and his school permeated the 
whole Church, but with most unhappy consequences. It 
was the beginning of private interpretation. 

Mosheim says : " This unhappy method opened a secure 
retreat for all sorts of errors that a wild and irregular im- 
agination could bring forth. . . . He had recourse to the 
fecundity of a lively imagination, and maintained that the 
Holy Scriptures were to be interpreted in the same alle- 

* Mosh., Hist., Book I., Part II., chap, iii., note 17. 



PEE-MILLENNIAL ADVENT. 37 

gorical way that the Platonists explained the history of the 
gods." . . . " It was followed by a prodigious number of 
interpreters in that and the succeeding ages, and overflowed 
the Church. 

Dr. Clarke says (Seiss) : " Every friend of rational piety 
and genuine Christianity must lament that a man of so 
much learning and unaffected godliness should have been 
led to countenance, much less to recommend, a plan of inter- 
preting divine oracles in many respects the most futile, 
absurd, and dangerous that can possibly be conceived ; and 
by which the sacred writings may be obliged to say any- 
thing, everything, or nothing, according to the fancy, pecu- 
liar creed, or caprice of the interpreter." 

Milner says : " A thick mist for ages pervaded the Chris- 
tian world supported by Origen's allegorical manner of inter- 
pretation. The learned alone were considered as guides 
implicitly to be followed ; and the vulgar, when the literal 
sense was hissed off the stage, had nothing to do but to 
follow their authority wherever it might lead them." 

Here, then, we find the source of that mystical, spiritual- 
izing school of theology which now prevails throughout the 
Christian world, both Romish and Protestant. It did not 
claim at first to overthrow entirely the primitive doctrine 
of the reign of Christ, but its effect was to obscure it alto- 
gether. 

II. The second erroneous interpretation of the Millen- 
nium seems to have grown out of the first. 

The mystical interpretation claimed that Pagan Rome 
was Antichrist, and the reign of Christ should begin when 
that power was overcome. In a.d. 313-337, this event hap- 
pened ; the emperor tolerated Christianity ; then came the 
beginning of the alliance between Church and State. We 
can easily see how they thought Satan was bound when per- 
secutions ceased, when the great day of assembly, the first 
day of the week, was made a holy day by law, when pagan 
temples began to resound with the praises of Christ. Then 
the early doctrine of the Millennium, as stated by St. John, 
and held by all the fathers, was rejected or loaded with all 
the excessive fanaticism of those who interpreted it sensu- 
ally. The writings of the fathers were altered and forged 



38 PEE-MILLENNIAL ADVENT. 

to make them agree with the new interpretation that Chris- 
tian Rome was the reign of Christ in his kingdom. We 
know what a sorry Millennium they made of it. As the 
Papacy grew, the primitive doctrine declined, until with the 
Scriptures it disappeared almost entirely. 

But as schisms occurred and iniquity abounded, a new 
idea arose ; it was to be on or about a.d. 1000. I have 
not time to go into the Millennial excitement which then 
aroused the Christian Church. The whole world arose as 
one man to capture Jerusalem, and the wealth of the world 
was poured at the feet of the Church in preparation for the 
second coming of Christ. When that time came and passed, 
Millenarianism, as they understood it, became a matter ut- 
terly abhorrent to the Church, and now there is no bitterer 
enemy to the primitive doctrine than the Church of Rome. 

I am not aware that it is heard of again until the Refor- 
mation. Then it was revived with the revival of the Scrip- 
tures. But with it comes also the excesses of the fanatics. 
Nowhere does the truth of God appear without Satan comes 
also. The excesses of the Anabaptists in the Lutheran Re- 
formation is paralleled almost exactly in the temporal king- 
dom of the Mormons established in this country in 1830, ex- 
cept that the Anabaptists were summarily suppressed by the 
sword. 

But the true doctrine is carefully to be distinguished from 
the false, and here is where so many of us have been misled. 

Bishop Wordsworth, whom I have already quoted as ac- 
cepting the mystical view, sweepingly says : " The opinion of 
the Millenarians was also condemned both by the Luther- 
ans and Calvinists of the sixteenth century. It was also con- 
demned in one of the articles of the Church of England, a.d. 
1552." 

The Augsburg Confession, the mother of the Reforma- 
tion, is the expression of the Reformation on the Conti- 
nent. This took shape twenty years before the Reformation 
in England. It was published and read ,before the Emperor 
Charles V., on the' 25th of June, 1530. Article XYII. says : 
"They condemn others also, which spread abroad Jewish 
opinions, that before the resurrection of the dead, the godly shall 
get the sovereignty of the world, and the wicked be brought 



PRE-MILLENNIAL ADVENT. 39 

■under in every place." Here, then, is condemned, not the 
true but the false doctrine of the Millennium under both 
forms of Origenism and Romanism, one of which made it 
by the subjective development of man, the other by the final 
triumph of the Church over all governments. That Luther 
held the true doctrine is evident by these extracts from his 
writings (Seiss). " Some say that before the latter days the 
whole world shall become Christians. This is a falsehood 
forged by Satan, that he might darken sound doctrine. Be- 
ware, therefore, of this delusion." 

He elsewhere speaks of the prophecies made to David as 
to be fulfilled in Christ. " We may be assured," he adds, 
"that this king is divinely appointed and is a real Man." 
Elsewhere he expresses his opinion that " it will be fulfilled 
at the end of six thousand years from the creation." Melanc- 
thon agrees in these points with Luther. Thus it is evident 
the Reformation on the Continent intended to preserve the 
true doctrine of the Millennium. 

Next the English Reformation. The XLIst Article put 
forth in 1552 under Edward VI. reads, " They who endeavor 
to revive the fable of the Millennium are therein contrary to 
the Holy Scriptures, and cast themselves down headlong 
into the Jewish dotages." This is evidently directed, by its 
language, against the Anabaptists, and others, who like the 
Jews say the kingdom of heaven is set ujp already and is tem- 
poral. But that they held the true doctrine is seen by Arti- 
cle XXXIX., which reads : " The resurrection of the dead is 
not past already, as if it belonged only to the soul, which by 
the grace of Christ is raised from the death of sin ; but it is 
to be expected by all men in the last day, for at that time 
(as the Scripture doth most apparently testify) the dead 
shall be restored to their own bodies, flesh and bones, to the 
end that man, according as either righteously or wickedly he 
hath passed this life, may, according to his merits, receive 
rewards or punishments." This is the condemnation of 
Origenism, the mystical interpretation of the first resurrec- 
tion. Article XL. condemns annihilationism. Article XLIL 
reads : " They also deserve to be condemned who endeavor 
to restore the pernicious opinion that all men (though never 
so ungodly) shall at last be saved ; when for a certain time 



40 PKE-MILLENNIAL ADVENT. 

appointed by divine Justice they have endured punishment 
for sins committed." This is evidently aimed at that feature 
of Origenism which ultimately grew into the Romish doc- 
trine of Purgatory. The seeds of this doctrine are being 
sown again in these modern days of progress. But there is 
much stronger evidence. Turning to the catechism of Ed- 
ward VI., 1553, it says : " Antichrist is not yet slain. For 
this cause do we long for and pray that it may at length 
come to pass and be fulfilled, that Christ may reign with his 
saints according to God's promises ; that he may live and be 
Loed in the Woeld, according to the decrees of the Holy Gospel, 
not after the tradition and laws of men, nor pleasure of 
worldly tyrants." 

Again, from the same Catechism, " The lesser world, 
which is man, following the same, shall likewise be deliv- 
ered from corruption and change. And so for man, this 
greater world (which for his sake was first created) shall at 
length be renewed, and be clad with another hue much 
more pleasant and beautiful. Master. What then remaineth ? 
Scholar. The last and general doom. For Christ shall come ; 
at whose voice all the dead shall rise again." These are un- 
mistakable, and are the work of Cranmer, Latimer, Ridley, 
and others. It is sufficient to show, that at the first Refor- 
mation in England, the true doctrine of the reign of Christ 
was carefully held and its errors banished. 

The accession of Queen Mary and the return of the Rom- 
ish power, stopped for a time the work of reformation. The 
reformers were martyred and their work undone. Upon the 
accession of Elizabeth the work began again. In 1562 the 
articles I have quoted were thrown out, and Edward's Cate- 
chism was not revived. I have been unable, at this writing, 
to discover the reasons. It may have been due to Romish 
influence, for the compromising spirit prevailed, and for 
twelve years the Romanists conformed to the Church, their 
secession occurring in 1570. 

Thus I have traced down to, and including, the Reformation, 
the history of the true doctrine of the Millennium, or reign 
of Christ, and how it has suffered from Origenism and Roman- 
ism. It confirms my faith — nothing can overthrow it but 
the impeachment of the scripture, apostolic, primitive, and 



PEE-MILLENNIAL ADVENT. 41 

reformation witnesses, nearly all of whom sealed their testi- 
mony with their blood. 

Since the Reformation, as I have shown, there have been 
many — an unbroken line in the Church of England and other 
reformed bodies, who have stoutly contended for the primi- 
tive faith. The alliance of Church and State in England, 
as well as the prevalence of Origenism, have combined to 
smother the doctrine. 

In this country a cowardly cringing to public opinion, 
love of money, show, and success have unnerved us all, so 
that the chief concern of the Church's life seems to be 
schemes for money-getting and property-saving, ecclesi- 
astical millinery, Christmas-trees, and even baby-shows, 
while the suggestion of so startling an idea as the coming 
of the " Lord of the whole earth," to reign in judgment over 
mankind, created in his own image and likeness, and re- 
deemed by his precious blood, paralyzes our effeminate, 
enslaved brain. 

I may add here, if this needs any further testimony, cir- 
cumstantial evidence. 

1. The Jews are said to have had a prayer somewhat like 
our Lord's Prayer, with the petition, " Thy kingdom reign." 
Our Lord, in teaching his disciples, changed the word 
" reign " to " come," and the Apostles' teaching harmonizes 
with that petition. Recently, if I am correctly informed, in 
the translation of the Scriptures for the converted inhabit- 
ants of the Island of Madagascar, those people are taught to 
pray, " Thy kingdom increase." 

2. For lack of time I have not investigated the complexion 
of the translators of King James' version, but from several 
passages, compared with the original, it would seem they 
were laboring under Origenism, or the Romish idea of the 
growth of the Church, until it converts the world before 
the return of Christ. 

For instance, in St. Paul's 2d Epistle to the Thessalonians, 
2d chapter, he says, " Now we beseech you, brethren, by the 
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering 
together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or 
be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as 
from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand ; let no man 



42 PRE-MILLENNIAL ADVENT. 

deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come, ex- 
cept there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be 
revealed." So the authorized version. St. Paul in two other 
places, St. Peter once, and St. John twice, say, " the day of 
the Lord is at hand." It has been argued from this, and it 
has been so stated to me quite recently, that the Apostles 
were mistaken about the coming of Christ, or that St. Paul 
changed his mind. 

A reference to the original in II. Thess., shows that the 
word is eveffTjptzr, " has come," " is already present," or 
" already set up," and is so translated in six other places. 
This gives the passage an entirely different meaning. It 
would seem that already some were troubling the Thessa- 
lonians with mystical or Romish interpretations, that the 
day of the Lord was " setup," or "had come," either in bap- 
tism or the descent of the Holy Ghost. He, then, at once 
and forever condemns the development theory in whatever 
shape it may appear, by saying, that it is to come after a retro- 
gression, a falling way, a development of evil, not of good. 
He warns them toj&eware of being shaken by ivord, by spirit, 
or by forged epistle, and this true doctrine of the Millennium, 
ever since, has been attacked by word, i. e., vain philosophy 
of the mystics, by pretended revelations, like the Montan- 
ists, the Anabaptists, the Mormons, the Spiritualists, and by 
forged documents with which the Romish Church is loaded, 
and also, as I have shown, somewhat in our own. 

3. Another coincidence. Origenism and the notion that 
Rome was the headquarters of the Church, had become 
amalgamated and fixed in the Church by the beginning of 
the seventh century. The idea that the Church was the 
kingdom of Christ prevailed everywhere, and the primitive 
doctrine of the reign of Christ was buried in oblivion. At 
the same time, the beginning of the seventh century, Mo- 
hammed arose as a prophet of God. He came with the 
sword ; established a theocracy — a kingdon of God on the 
earth. He made utterly desolate the whole Christian world, 
and Mohammedanism has been a woe to Christianity and that 
country ever since. Mohammed claimed to be sent of God, 
and probably he was. The Scriptures say : " By me (the 
Lord) kings reign." " The powers that be are ordained of 



PRE-MILLENNIAL ADVENT. 43 

God." It is certainly reasonable conjecture that Mohammed 
was raised up of God to afflict his erring Church. Further : 
Mohammedan chronology made a new era ; the year 1* cor- 
responds with a.d. 621. In the prophet Daniel, and the 
Book of Revelation, the number 1260, supposed to mean 
1260 years, occurs repeatedly as marking the termination of 
a period of great importance ; " the time of the end." The 
year of Mohammed 1260 coincides, if I am not mistaken, 
with our year 1881. I do not desire to throw any emphasis 
on this — " God is his own interpreter," and I have had no 
revelation ; but as we see the Governments of Europe, now 
in session, using by diplomacy that decayed power as the 
keystone of their arch in effecting a compromise, and know 
ivhence that power arose, and ivhy it arose, and contrast it 
with " the reign of Christ," the keystone of the Christian 
faith, it is certainly significant in the highest degree, and 
should make us very humble and watchful, and faithful to 
Him whom we believe to be the Saviour of the world, and 
yet to be its Judge. t 

4. The effect of this kind of teaching. It is said that 
the doctrine is liable to perversion and misunderstanding, 
and it should be suppressed^ kept in the background. But 
compare it with its opposite, the theories of future restor- 



* Dating, not from the Hejira, but from Mohammed's pretended journey 
into heaven. 

f The following data of the Berlin Congress may be of value, for pro- 
phetical comparison, to those interested in "Palmoni" Of other particu- 
lars, possibly equally significant, I am not in possession. 

The Governments represented, with their delegates, were, respectively : 
Great Britain, 3 ; France, 2 ; Germany, 3 ; Austria, 3 ; Russia, 3 ; 
Italy, 2 ; Turkey, 3. Seven Governments, and nineteen (10 + 9) repre- 
sentatives. The articles were signed on the thirteenth of July, a.d. 
1878, a.m. (Mahan) 6002. 

The leader of the Congress, not the official head, was Benjamin Disraeli. 
He negotiated during the session a secret treaty with Turkey, by which 
England obtains a protectorate over the renowned Cyprus, and thus practi- 
cally controls Palestine, as she already does Egypt. 

If we cannot prove Lord Beaconsfield to be of the tribe of Benjamin, and 
the house of Israel, we certainly cannot prove that he is not. 

The results of this Congress deserve watching from the field of divine 
revelation. We can deal certainly, only with things which "have been" 
and "are." 



44 PRE-MILLENNIAL ADVENT. 

ation of tlie wicked, which have been raging of late. Those 
theories are private and false interpretations of the Scrip- 
ture. This is a truth of God. And what are their effects ? 
Judas Iscariot set his heart on the temporal promises of re- 
ligion ; when those were unsettled and about to slip from 
his grasp, with mingled feelings of hope and hatred, he did 
an act of which he was ashamed to repent, and in remorse 
committed suicide. 

Pontius Pilate longed to let Jesus escape, but fearing to 
offend the ruling powers, more than he feared to wrong a 
helpless, but innocent prisoner, he delivered up the Lord of 
glory. Subsequently, Pontius Pilate, " wearied with misfor- 
tunes," committed suicide. About two weeks ago (I take an 
extreme case for the present day) a boy in Brooklyn, of about 
thirteen years of age, failing to win the prize at school for 
which he had striven, attempted suicide ; on being reproved, 
he gave as a reason, " they did not believe in any future pun- 
ishment now, and he did not, nor did he care what became 
of him." " By their fruits ye shall know them "is as true 
now as it ever was. 

It is the highest incentive possible, to patience, to endur- 
ance, to humility, to godliness, to confession of sins, to deeds 
of love and kindness, to fidelity in whatever state of life we 
find ourselves, to know the exact truth ; to know that all things 
happen to us for good, and that there is to be a "recompense," 
a " reward " on this earth in the age to come, when we hold 
fast in its simplicity the word of truth which has been de- 
livered us in meekness and fear. . . . We cannot es- 
cape from God ; we cannot interpret his prophecies ; we can 
only believe them, and study them, and wait and watch for 
their fulfilment, " redeeming the time, because the days are 
evil." We cannot overcome the world — He has already 
overcome it. Our victory is simply one of faith, that it will 
be manifest in due time. 

This truth of the reign of Christ, and of his own fulfil- 
ment of the prophecies and promises, is a most certain one. 
We cannot overthrow it by running away from it, or closing 
our ears ; nor prevent its fulfilment by withholding our ad- 
hesion. We may now understand, better than ever before, 
what St. Peter meant by saying : " Save yourselves from 
this untoward generation." 



PKE-MILLENNIAL ADVENT. 45 

Finally, one might be justified in characterizing in very 
severe terms, any, who, either singly or unitedly, would con- 
spire to hide or throw disrepute upon so simple and glorious 
a truth. Any child can understand what it means, as soon 
as he comes to years of discretion ; he can easily tell, 
whether or not he is a subject of Christ, and is obedient to 
his words — but I forbear ; the open page of Scripture is be- 
fore us, and that, it is said, shall judge us all in that great 
and glorious day of the Lord. 



